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Are you a $250K+ executive ready to make a transition? You may be concerned that your executive resume isn't branding or positioning you properly. You may be struggling with keeping your resume a reasonable length or knowing what to keep in, leave out or minimize. Or you may wrestle with "embarrassment" at having to communicate accomplishments. These and other issues can make updating your resume a daunting process.

Some of the most common issues with executive resumes include:

Too much text

Paragraphs that are 5-10 lines deep

No framework of perspective established at the cursory glance

The total resume is more than three pages long

Writing about everything you have done

Your goal is to create an executive resume that delivers critical information — not just when given a cursory glance but at the deeper read as well. The trick is applying marketing 101 principles objectively to your executive resume.

Here is a basic checklist to help you review your executive resume so that you include only the most important components:

1. Identify what you want, and build your resume for those positions.

This is the most important step I can share with you. Your resume can be visually interesting and crisply written, but if it is not written in alignment with the position title and industry you want, it won't deliver. Begin by finding a couple of representative job ads. Then highlight all of the areas that resonate with you, and compare your top keywords and key points against those keywords and phrases.

2. Anchor keywords and phrases.

These frame the outer edges of your resume document. Since they get the first look, they help establish your reader’s perspective of you. So what do you want and need them to know first? It doesn't matter if you are an amazing turnaround executive until your reader knows the size and scope of environment you do that in. So your framework may look like this:

You can see in the example above that you quickly learn the following: preferred title, preferred size, preferred company structure, preferred industry or specialty.

Now, whatever you read below this framework, you will absorb much more readily because you have a fairly solid baseline of perspective established. Here are a few more keywords that would be considered anchor keywords — or things that are important to establish right away that help the reader both understand what they are reading and make good judgments about you:

Think of all the resumes you have looked at as an executive and how a lack of clarity and focus created almost immediate frustration. As your eye travels through your own resume, note where it lands and what perception that is creating. This is your cursory glance resume. Your resume is really doing double duty because it has to perform at this cursory glance (and pass this test) as well as at the deeper read (usually in an interview setting as the vetting process evolves).

5. Keep your summary paragraph short and sweet.

As established at the beginning of this article, deep paragraphs will tend to lose the reader. Delivering information in short bites, call-out boxes, and even charts or graphs helps your reader digest more content.

6. Don’t go back more than 20 years.

There are exceptions, but generally speaking, what you did in 1995 isn’t going to be as important or impactful as what you have done during the last five years. Keep your focus on those accomplishments and pieces of information that are most in alignment with your goals now.

7. Tell your story.

Don’t assume that just because you worked for Microsoft every reader of your resume will know the details about your position simply because they are familiar with the company. At worst, this looks arrogant. Respect your reader, and don’t make them guess. No matter what size the company, give them general information such as:

A Fortune 50, $45B global technology company specializing in computer hardware, with 5,000 employees and more than 35 global locations in 16 countries.

8. Set up your story.

Were you recruited? Appointed? Hand-picked by the CEO? Promoted? What were the challenges you were tasked with resolving? How did you resolve them? This kind of summary narrative makes for interesting and efficient reading and provides multiple benefits to you. An obvious one is that communicating this way demonstrates your leadership abilities and your capacity to communicate in a compelling, organized manner. This engenders trust.

9. Lead with your metrics.

This demonstrates again that you understand what your readership is wanting to see from you — results. Begin your bullets with the end in mind, the result you achieved. Then you can share a little bit about how you did that. This is the second most important component of your resume. Most people tend to detail tasks in their resume. Leaders have to detail what happens when they successfully perform those tasks.

When a bullet begins with: “Generated an additional $90M in top-line revenue in just 12 months by doing …,” you will instantly capture your reader’s interest.

These CXO resume tips and strategies are evergreen, and when you put them into play in your own executive resume you will ensure that your resume is focused and aligned to your next executive career move. You will also ensure that the document will truly deliver the pieces of information (scale, scope, alignment) that key decision makers need to know when they first lay eyes on your resume.